It’s not a surprise that Valencia is the best place to go for paella. The original recipe comes from here and this great dish is the culinary symbol of the city. In Valencia there are lots of nice restaurants, often located by the beach or near the “Ciudad Vella”. Most of them have spent a lot of effort into the decoration and the atmosphere is really welcoming. No matter what you will be doing in Valencia: you must taste paella at least once during your stay. Check these 3 restaurants so that you can eat the best paella in town.
La Ruia Restaurant
Probably it is the best place to eat if you are looking for a traditional genuine Valencian restaurant. It offers a wide range of local choices: over 15 traditional types of paellas and rice (it’s difficult to find such an offer in any other restaurant in the city), fish dishes and the local meat. The interior is typical Valencian with ceramics and meborabilia on the walls. La Riua is really a legend: it is a loved and respected place and due to this there are usually a lot of guests. You can call and book a table or also order your paella while you are arriving. Eating paella costs almost 15 euro, meat 7, 10 fish and seafood.
Tapelia Restaurant
This restaurant is a real “arroceria” (“ricery”) with a broad offer of rice dishes (15 – 20 different kinds of paella). You can even taste the unique paella with deer. You can also order some good creative meat dishes, great starters and salads. It is also possible to have paella to take-away. The range of prices varies between 15/20 euro for a paella, 5/7 for meat dishes, 12 for salads. The ambience is really welcoming with stonework walls, intimate lighting, artworks with a great jazz soundtrack, many small tables together and a few people. There are other two “Tapelia restaurants” in town, one near the beach and one near the City of Arts and Sciences.
Taverna Alkazar
The Taverna Alkazar is a historic restaurant located in the centre of Valencia with over 50 years of history. It is one of the most popular ones, even for the Valencians. Probably it is not cheap, but the great level of quality combined with the idea of simplicity makes it one of the best places to eat. It offers Spanish themes on the walls and a big dining terrace for the summer that is shared with two neighbour restaurants, maybe a bit cheaper (so why don’t check out also the Givera and the Palacio de Bellota). You can have luxury traditional fish, seafood and meat plus a fair few paella varieties. The fish /seafood dishes can cost about 15/20 euro, the meat 10.
